Honda City 2007 10th Anniversary Edition - Door & Bonnet Corrosion

. This is a discussion on Honda City 2007 10th Anniversary Edition - Door & Bonnet Corrosion within The Technical Zone. Part of The Automotive Answers category; I own a Honda City 10th Anniversary edition 2007 model and i find that the inside of all the doors ...

I own a Honda City 10th Anniversary edition 2007 model and i find that the inside of all the doors and the exterior of the front passenger door badly corroded. I took up the matter with Honda India only to be told that it is a "hard water" issue.

Firstly, the car is maintained identical(using the same water source) to other cars(Ford, Maruti, Skoda, etc.) in my complex and few of them are as old as my car. They show no signs of corrosion.

Secondly, the main body of the car has not been affected by corrosion.

I would like to know if any of the members have faced a similar issue and what their course of action was and what the financial implications were in rectifying it. Appreciate any help.

Could it be because you are in Chennai & its a humid coastal region/area that the corrosion is happening more rapidly. I have heard similar stories of faster corrosion rates in other coastal cities of Vishakapatnam, Mangalore, Mumbai etc

Hi IndicaDLS... thanks for your prompt reply. The thought you suggested crossed my minded and I had it investigated but it turned out that that was not the case. I dont live very close to the shore and cars much closer are in much better shape. I had a second opinion taken and it pointed to the possible fact that the sheet metal used and/or the paint had issues which Honda is denying

Rust seen inside the door lower part is common and it is due to the water getting inside through the gap between glass & beeding. These water may be clogged in the door due to the drainage holes blocked. This you can see in most of the 6-7 year old car(now adays cars start to rust within 5 years.in my car rust already start to seen below right OVRM) and it will be more in case car has not kept in the covered parking area or it has more contact with water ie daily washing. I had seen this in my 2006 car, while we open the door pad for replace the rusted Glass channel. Most of the rusted pieces where lying on the door drainage area.

usually bubbles you can see only in the repainted area. Either it is because of bad putty or painting done before the putty dry or done in humid condition.

I own a Honda City 10th Anniversary edition 2007 model and i find that the inside of all the doors and the exterior of the front passenger door badly corroded. I took up the matter with Honda India only to be told that it is a "hard water" issue.

Firstly, the car is maintained identical(using the same water source) to other cars(Ford, Maruti, Skoda, etc.) in my complex and few of them are as old as my car. They show no signs of corrosion.

Secondly, the main body of the car has not been affected by corrosion.

I would like to know if any of the members have faced a similar issue and what their course of action was and what the financial implications were in rectifying it. Appreciate any help.

PS: Am attaching the pics

The issue is not because you are near the sea.
The chances of water going inside your Honda car was higher than other cars.
Upon going through your pictures I observed that all these corroded places have possibilities of water seeping in and retention .The corrosion may be due to the following reasons.
1) Honda would have ignored the chance of corrosion at the innermost parts.
2)The design was not meant for pressure wash (this is stupid logic!).But if we use pressure wash,there is a chance of water seeping in more inside.I have seen some road side service centers doing this.Once the water goes inside its very difficult to clean it up.
3)The parts used may be of inferior quality.
4)This was not seen at the right time by the service people ,so that timely anti corrosive could have been applied.

Whatever this is you can clean up at least 80% of these malformations.But inside the door panels I think not possible. Honda may ask you to change the doors (!).

The company will not support you anyway ,other than taking up the repair and paint job,which you have to pay. Approach a nearest tinker and paint job specialist he must be able to take care of this at a very comfortable cost.

Reelesh and generalmax - Thanks very much for your inputs and thoughts. It seems more logical when you put it this way. I agree that it is a stupid design to allow water to seep that easily between the beading and glass. I have never used pressure wash other than at Honda dealership itself .

I got an estimate close to Rs 40K to get this done. Any idea if this is a reasonable number? Also, would you know of any tinkering and repair chain company that is reliable and may have branches in the large metros of India. Am in Chennai.

Hey Chayan, Thanks for that. Looks like the painter is in Kolkatta. However, i think my experiences have been very similar. I spoke to Ford Executive and he was mentioning that such corrosion is due to the "value engineering" they do to the cars to launch in 3rd world/developing countries. This is very true of non-European brands.

I would appreciate any pointers to a good tinkering and paint shop in Chennai. Thanks once again.

Reelesh and generalmax - Thanks very much for your inputs and thoughts. It seems more logical when you put it this way. I agree that it is a stupid design to allow water to seep that easily between the beading and glass. I have never used pressure wash other than at Honda dealership itself .

As per my knowledge, water will come in to the inner door area in most of the cars through the gap between glass & beeding and this will go through the drainage area.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wavefella

I got an estimate close to Rs 40K to get this done. Any idea if this is a reasonable number? Also, would you know of any tinkering and repair chain company that is reliable and may have branches in the large metros of India. Am in Chennai.

Thanks once again for your views and inputs.

this type of company also charge you almost this type of amount. But the same time check with any local workshops and they will point you towards good painters in the locality. get a better quote from them. I feel they dont quote more than Rs.5K for this work.

Hmmm.I was thinking the same.They would recommend you to replace the doors.If you dont want to do that go to a good painter as Releesh suggested.
Taking it up with Honda is not much of a chance as you will be going rounds over this.
I am not demoralizing you.
Let us go through the actuals.
Front -Right door may need to be replaced.(Scaling had happened Inside.)
Back right door -Not much of a problem -Rubbing the rust off and puttying will do for inside and painting.
Left front -the one with holes ,needs to be replaced (rather than filling and painting) and painter
Left Back -No issues
Bonnet -Rubbing & Repaint.
Dicky door -no issues

Reelesh....the minimum quote is 35K and they recommend to replace the doors instead.

Where it has quoted Rs.35 K? I don't think any local shops quote these huge amount.
Except the front left door, nothing seems to be replaced. Even that also can be worked out by a good tinker, but it is better to replace. Either you should contact any good local workshops which can also handles accident jobs and tell them to replace the left door and painting & patching of all other issues. It never cross more than Rs.5K(except the door price) as i earlier said.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wavefella

Am trying to take it up with Honda Cars. If there are other similar cases, do let me know so that it can strengthen our case.

No point in taking up with Honda since your car is more than 6 years old. My brother owns 2007 city Zx and his friend has a 2003 city ex. I didn't seen rust on both cars(outside). Mine is a 2006 esteem. In which i seen this type rust inside the door. But nothing visible to outside.

Regretfully you are not the only one suffering from Honda's corrosion factor. The Founder must be turning in his grave upon seeing what his successors are doing to Honda. Quality checks have apparently disappeared. CORROSION is the new IN at Honda.

Dear,
There must be a problem on your car manufacturing process , the anti corrosion treatment or galvonisation could be a slightly wrongly done, take a scientific test in a lab, on a un corooded sheet price inside the cars metal, some where from boot , you can claim the results with Honda.
All the best